Kanpai

What is the PSP?

It caused a stir when it was launched in Japan last year. Now Sony's portable is undergoing reincarnation as a wireless net browser. What's next for the PSP in Japan?

In my local coffee shop on Kyoto's Shijo-dori -- where, Cheers-style, everyone knows my name -- one of the hipsters at the counter asks about my work. "Ah, have you seen the news? The PSP is becoming Internet-enabled!" Yes, I concur. Yes it is. Then comes the punch line: "It's big, though."

Coffee Shop Chap has a point. And he makes that point (without deliberation) by producing his keitai (mobile) and logging on to the Daily Yomiuri website. His point is, I assume, that the PSP is now equipped to do what most keitai can already do perfectly well. In other words, "So what?"

Don't get me wrong. I have been playing Minna No Golf on my PSP since day one. I love it. I love Lumines and Ridge Racer too. And the system, although big in comparison with a keitai, is ergonomically just shy of perfection.

While Nintendo's DS has been blessed with a constant stream of interesting new games, however, the PSP's catalogue (especially in Japan) is lackluster. The next PSP game that Japanese players will buy in any great bulk is the forthcoming September release of Konami's Winning Eleven: Ubiquitous Edition -- and even that, as Konami confesses and as Japanese PS2 and Xbox owners experience firsthand, is ubiquitous anyway.

You've come a long way, baby!

It's no surprise, then, that Sony has decided to release the 2.0 firmware update at this juncture. If there are no games to play, at least some users will be placated by the hardware's newly implemented web browser. There are certainly plenty of WiFi hotspots in the major cities here. But in light of the fact that most Japanese cellphones enable users to browse the Internet, it is the PSP's other online functions -- such as movie and game downloads -- which will set it apart.

The system's movie playback features are only now about to be properly engaged, with the advent of downloadable content both from Sony and web-based TV providers. Sony's leading project in this field is P-TV (the P stands for Portable, in case you were wondering). Via the P-TV website subscribers can download prepared movie files of recent TV shows direct to their PSP's Memory Stick. The range of content on offer represents a good cross-section of what can be seen on terrestrial Japanese TV: old anime, dubbed movies from the U.S., cooking programs, and soppy Korean dramas. Perfect.